On Tuesday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation announced that it’s now gearing up to tackle the latest completely absurd troll, which claims to have invented podcasting.

The company in question, Personal Audio LLC, has not sold a product since 1998—it appears to make money entirely by suing companies and compelling them to license its patents. In January 2013, Personal Audio sued a few big-name podcasts, including the Adam Carolla Show and the Stuff You Should Know podcasts.

As Dave Winer, one of podcasting’s co-inventors, wrote Tuesday on Twitter: “How could a patent issued in 2012 cover podcasting, a technology that's been around since 2001?”

Patent 8,112,504 claims to be a “system for disseminating media content representing episodes in a serialized sequence,” or what Personal Audio LLC itself refers to as the “podcast patent.” Despite the patent not having been issued until 2012, the company argues it has a “precursor to podcasting,” which was filed in a different form back in 1996 but then eventually led to this patent. That also probably explains why the ‘504 patent refers to obviously outdated technology like Windows 95 and SLIP/PPP dialup. It cites infrared as “rapidly becoming a standard feature [on PCs]” and Mosaic as a “conventional web browser.”

This isn’t the first time Personal Audio has filed a patent troll lawsuit. Using various other patents, it has gone up against Apple, Samsung, Research in Motion, Motorola, and HTC—and managed to win $8 million against Apple back in 2011.

If you’re a podcaster who has been hit with a letter from Personal Audio, the EFF wants to help.

“We think there are more of you out there than you realize. EFF would like to understand how big the problem is and make sure you’re all in touch with each other,” wrote Julie Samuels, a staff attorney, and the EFF’s Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents. “We can also help you find counsel. If you’ve heard from Personal Audio, please send us an email at podcasting@eff.org.”

1. Fire the patent office and hire people who know how to do their job ...2. Stick the owners of the company in prison under the formula of (no. of years = $$$ made on extortion).

Real simple ....

Can you outline precisely what their job actually is (and not what we'd like it to be)? Each person may well be doing exactly what it is they're supposed to, but the laws and management are broken.

It's a combination of overload, bad laws and the fact that some patent examiners are responsible for examining patents that aren't necessarily in their area of expertise. For the last several years now more than half a million patents have been filed for in the US a year. As it gets decided that new types of ideas can be patented the office gets inundated with patents in those areas. Software patents are relatively new as are patents for "business methods". And all of these are being examined by around 7000 people who get to decide what is and isn't a valid idea for a patent. Is an idea "obvious" and therefore not worthy of a patent? That could be subjective. Has an idea been done before or is this a new and "novel" take on an old idea? Again, could be subjective. It isn't an easy job and it's been made harder by politicians who have decided that it should be possible to patent any random idea that falls out of your head.

Since the patent clearly describes a server side system which produces custom playlists based on a category, the fact that the management of podcasts is done on the client side and requires manual curation by the user to select which shows to listen to means that again, this isn't the same thing.

The claims are what matter, starting in section 46 on page 32. If this ever made it to court, someone would be found to have infringed (or not) on *specific claims*. All the rest, the title, background, summary, and drawings, are… less relevant, and in some cases just misleading.

Claim #1 seems very broad and describes most every podcast system today.

So doesn't this patent also cover television shows and radio serials? So much litigation potential wasted going after penniless podcasters when there's BIG fish like HBO and NBC walking around!

Don't you know that in almost every case the first trial is to get a precedent and not to get money. It's much easier to get money from the Big Fish if you have a precedent to lean on.

Unless of course the EFF steps in to protect the little guy who would have otherwise been crushed by the litigating juggernaut who can afford to keep the trial going until the little guy caves in under the weight of legal defense bills.

These days it's nowhere near as easy as it used to be to bully little people around with threats of financially destroying their lives in court now that these EFF do-gooders step in to actually give them a challenge for their court dollars.

So doesn't this patent also cover television shows and radio serials? So much litigation potential wasted going after penniless podcasters when there's BIG fish like HBO and NBC walking around!

Don't you know that in almost every case the first trial is to get a precedent and not to get money. It's much easier to get money from the Big Fish if you have a precedent to lean on.

Unless of course the EFF steps in to protect the little guy who would have otherwise been crushed by the litigating juggernaut who can afford to keep the trial going until the little guy caves in under the weight of legal defense bills.

These days it's nowhere near as easy as it used to be to bully little people around with threats of financially destroying their lives in court now that these EFF do-gooders step in to actually give them a challenge for their court dollars.

Of course it's not as easy as it used to be, but it's most likely still easier than going for the Big Fish directly.

Well, one of these days, someone is going to sue the wrong person with one of these troll lawsuits, and that person will do to said patent troll, what happened to two other such trolls in Russia and the Ukraine, who were both found tied to chairs and beaten to death. Both cases still unresolved, and there are no more patent trolls operating out of the Ukraine or Russia.

It seems like I could by what i have been reading lately.If you have a good pitch on bull crap you can patent and sue for it.Wow what a shame the patent office is so uneducated on technology.Any scammer can get one, which makes their scam not a scam.Its a legalized mafia

Only if you add something innovative to the act of defecation.

I am, I think, going to patent a device or method for the consuming online or stored data while engaging in defecatory activities. Like to read your ebook reader/tablet/phone/other electronic device while pooping? You owe me money!

I'll patent the Upper Decker. All those little deviants will owe me money.